


To stutter on a squarewave heartbeat

by BunnyBoi1998, Nikkie2571



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Coffee Shops, Gay Robots, Learning How To Emotion, M/M, Robots, service robots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:14:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24193402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BunnyBoi1998/pseuds/BunnyBoi1998, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nikkie2571/pseuds/Nikkie2571
Summary: Martin Flemly was a robot and his very presence had a way of making him feel like he was special.
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Comments: 8
Kudos: 5





	1. Work Routine 1

Designation: Robot - Subtype: Android - Designated name: [BLANK] - Owner: Cho Lee

These words defined the existence of Typical Humanoid Approximating Device (T.H.A.D.), whose purpose was to be whatever his owner needed him to be, anything from a waiter to a cashier to even just someone to talk to. He could even be female, which only really worked if he, or rather she in that case, was given the correct kind of body to inhabit, but still. His owner just needed to ask, and he would provide.

Cho was an interesting owner, all things considered. She didn’t ask for much, just for someone to talk to when she wasn’t busy, and someone to help staff her coffee shop when she was. It wasn’t difficult work, but since she only had to pay him for the electricity he consumed, he was much cheaper than an actual human in the long run.

She had him do her bookkeeping too, but computers were oversized calculators at their very core, so that was relatively simple stuff too. No, the hard thing about working for Cho, and for humans in general, was the distance they held in their closeness. They would treat you as human one moment and then machine the next, as if they couldn’t decide if you were worthy of being called a person.

THAD didn’t know if he was worthy of being called a person either mind you. That stuff was very subjective, and humans ran on emotional gradients instead of pure hard code, so the differences were really quite clear.

But then  _ he _ walked in the door. Not a human, but rather, the robot who worked for him. Just looking at him had numbers and identification information flowing into his circuits. THAD custom unit - Serial Number 1287649766 - Designated Name: Martin Flemley, Owner: Louie Flemley.

Designed to look like a younger version of his owner, Martin had very dirty blond hair, to the point it almost looked brown, kept in a shaggy mess despite his owner’s rather affluent status. His skin was tan and clear, with a manufactured scar on his right cheek. He was wearing a dark green flannel shirt with gray jeans.

THAD has never seen another robot before. The people who came to the store often didn’t have the money for that kind of expenditure, and the people who did have that kind of money… well, they could buy more expensive coffee.

The moment that Martin walked up to the register, his eyes sharpened to points before relaxing back down, and his face warped into an expression of surprise. THAD didn’t know what to do with that. He’d never been surprised like that before.

“Your designated name is blank, what do I call you?” Martin asked politely, if a bit bluntly.

“You may call me THAD,” THAD replied immediately, enunciating the capitals as best as he could.

Martin stared at him for a moment, silent, before ordering.

“Two large coffees, black,” Martin requested, before scanning his palm over the card reader, the device instantly picking up on the installed NFC chip in his hand.

THAD made him his coffees and then watched him walk out the door. He wasn’t sure why he watched him leave, but it had felt important to do so.

********

The next time Martin came around, the shop was nearly empty, and his order was much larger. Cho was in the back, taking some time to nap before the big rush of lunchtime.

“I’m going to need eleven regular coffees, three black, four normal, one double-double, one with no sugar and two cream, one with two shots of espresso, one regular with a shot of vanilla, and one regular hot chocolate. Also, two chocolate glazed donuts, please?”

THAD blinked at the other robot, unsure what to make of the order. Sure, he had it memorized and had, separately from the till, calculated the price for the order, but its volume had surprised him. No one had ever ordered something that large before.

“…that’ll be-”

Martin waved his hand over the active card machine, paying before THAD even finished speaking.

“Louie will take care of the cost, I don’t care how much it is,” he said with a smile.

THAD blinked again. 

“…okay,” he said, feeling small.

Feelings were, for a robot, kind of odd. They were calculated modifiers for tasks, changing the way one did things, the weights of what tasks one would be willing to do, but, as a robot, THAD only did what was asked of him. Feelings were, for him, kind of useless, even though he vaguely thought he would be upset if someone tried to take them away.

“So, your owner makes your work in her establishment?” Martin asked as THAD began to make his order.

THAD nodded. “She does.”

“Do you like it?” Martin asked.

THAD paused in the middle of squirting vanilla syrup into one of the coffees, the trail of sugary thick fluid flowing and bending slowly as he stood still.

Did he like working for Cho? THAD didn’t know if he could calculate an answer for that in the time it would take him to finish Martin’s order, let alone over the next few days. It was a tough thing to ask, and a tough thing to answer, since he had never stopped to ask himself it.

“I don’t know,” THAD eventually decided on. “I’ve never thought about it. She’s my owner, she gives me purpose. I kinda have to do what she says.”

Martin hummed thoughtfully, and to THAD he sounded kind of disappointed. So THAD did his best to wrap up Martin’s order as quickly as possible and hand it over to him.

“Here you go, Mr. Flemley,” he said as he passed Martin the twelve drinks.

Martin nodded politely and was, once again, out the door.

And once again, THAD watched him leave. Still not entirely sure why.

********

“Are you allowed to go and do things on your own?” Martin asked him the next time he showed up at the store.

THAD blinked, finger hovering over the keyboard for the register.

“I’ve… never needed to,” THAD admitted. “But… I guess I can ask Cho?”

Martin smiled. “You do that, please….. After you get me two espressos please.”

THAD punched in the order and resisted the emotionally driven impulse to gulp. It was dumb, useless, would convey nothing to anyone but himself.

THAD gulped.

********

“That THAD has been coming in a lot lately,” Cho commented as THAD watched Martin leave once again.

“... His name is Martin… Martin Flemley,” THAD said softly as he turned to face his owner.

Her eyes seemed to pierce through him, seeing into spaces even he wasn’t aware of.

“Is it now?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

THAD blinked at her, forcing none of his emotions to show on his face.

“Yes.”

Cho stared at him for a bit and then frowned.

“Should I have given you a name?” she asked.

THAD wanted so very much to gape, to let his eyes widen, to show his surprise, but he couldn’t. Cho had never wanted that from him.

“Do you think I should have one?” he asked in as forcefully placid a voice as he could.

Cho stared at him, for a very very long moment and then turned back to face the machinery.

_ Well. I guess that ends that line of questioning. _

THAD nearly turned back to the register before he remembered that he had something to say.

“Oh, Cho… Martin asked me if I was allowed to go and do things on my own and… I couldn’t answer him… so, am I?”

Cho turned to look at him with a very strange look in her eyes. She almost seemed sad.

“Yeah, you can do whatever you want… as long as you keep helping out around here.”

THAD smiled at her, just a little. He couldn’t help it.

“Thank you.”


	2. Work Routine 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THAD learns a few things, and answers a question.

The moment Martin next walked into the shop THAD’s eyes immediately zeroed in on him. THAD watched a disgruntled look form on Martin’s face as he took in the crowd of people filling the space between him and the register. THAD kinda felt the same way, as, despite their interactions being rather objectively minor and lacking in content, THAD much preferred the other android’s presence over that of all the human customers combined.

THAD gave him his best encouraging smile, wanting to do his best to mitigate Martin’s frustrations, even if only somewhat. Unfortunately, given the way the people were bunched up in line waiting, there were at least twelve orders between the current one and Martin. They’d both just have to wait.

It was agonizing, wanting to do something. THAD had never wanted to do something separate from his job description before, not to this degree, and yet here he was, wishing and waiting to talk to a robot he didn’t really know. Odd, but, THAD felt like it was important, even if he wasn’t entirely sure why.

Martin finally approached the till, an almost relieved look on his face, in the tilt and stretch of his eyes and mouth.

“Hello, Martin,” THAD greeted with a smile.

He could feel Cho looking out of the corner of her eye to watch him.

Martin’s eyes flicked to Cho before coming back to THAD, a returning smile forming on his face.

“I’d like just a regular coffee, black, please and… an answer,” Martin requested.

THAD’s finger hovered over the keypad for the register. He’d been prepared for Martin to order a doughnut or some other kind of snack, but…

“W-what’s the question?” he asked.

Martin sighed, as if preparing his words, even though they both knew they could form sentences in fractions of a second. It was useless, emotional,  _ worry _ . THAD couldn’t help but adore it, the freedom of Martin’s face, the freedom  _ on _ his face.

“Would you like to get dinner with me, when you get off work?” Martin asked.

THAD blinked and Cho gasped, nearly spilling the drink she was handing over to one of the customers. In the following seconds THAD could hear her apologizing, despite the lack of mess, as his thoughts chugged away, analyzing and solving and computing.

Martin wanted to… get dinner? With THAD? Wh-what could THAD possibly have done to endear himself to Martin that he would want to  _ eat _ with the other android? Did he want to talk privately? About business? Something more casual? Something more personal?

THAD felt… nervous, but mostly confused. He just… didn’t have enough information.

THAD lowered his head, no longer meeting Martin’s eyes.

“Why?” he asked.

He heard Martin’s neck bend, the fabric of his clothes rustling, a gesture of amusement and/or contemplation from the other.

“Because,” Martin began slowly, “you’ve never denied any of my questions before, even when you didn’t know the answer. You’ve even offered to find them. Because even in your tiny little world housed here in this shop I can see you are content but not happy, and I know that talking to me brings you just a small tug of joy… and I like that.”

THAD gulped and brought his left hand up to grasp at his opposite arm, rubbing at it with his thumb in an emulation of a nervous gesture he had seen before from customers and in media.

“It, uh…” THAD faltered, feeling his nervousness take more force over his actions than he had ever let it before. “It sounds like you, um, that you like…. Me?”

A cool hand reached out, gently tapping at THAD’s cheek, making him look up at Martin’s amused eyes.

“That’s because I do. Like you, that is,” Martin declared. “And I’d like to like you even more, if you’d let me. What little of the emotions I’ve seen in you has been very… tantalizing. I can’t wait to see more.”

THAD muttered a small “oh” and just stared in equal parts bewilderment and joy at the mystery in front of him.

Cho cleared her throat, making the both of them turn to face her.

“Um… yes?” Martin questioned.

“He needs a name,” she said plainly. “And…”

She held out five twenty dollar bills.

“…some money before you take him on a date Mr. Flemley.”

THAD felt himself flush, his emotions having escaped his previously iron-tight control. There wasn’t really any point in holding them in any longer after all.

Martin chuckled. “My ‘father’ is the CEO of-”

Cho glared at him and he shut up. “We know who Louie is, but that doesn’t mean you need to pay for the entirety of your date, now does it?” she said, smiling sweetly.

Martin nodded. “Th-that’s fair, I guess.”

Cho gave him a pleased grin. “Now let me name my employee, kay?”

THAD gulped.

“W-will-, do I get a veto?”

Cho blinked. “Of course you do.”

Oh.

“Now,” Cho continued, “I was thinking ‘Ethan T. Lee’.”

“T?” Martin questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Cho blushed slightly. “It’s short for Thaddeus,” she mumbled.

Ethan couldn’t help but nod and sigh in amusement as Martin burst out in laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's a little shorter than the stuff I normally write, but I wrote this all really quickly just to get back into writing. Also, I didn't feel like having the date in the same chapter, that felt wrong.

**Author's Note:**

> if you like my stories you can come join my discord here! discord.gg/tBGA5fU


End file.
